Here's Where Boomers Will Find Retirement Work

Forecasts at mid-decade rosily predicted that post-career boomers would be much in demand by under-resourced employers. Those numbers have all changed now, thanks to the job-chomping recession.

So what's the employment future look like in the coming Boom Years? Not bad, actually, reports Harvard Business Review editor Bronwyn Fryer. He points to recent research showing the need for 5 million workers by 2018. He writes:

"Nearly half of them will be in the social sector -- which makes them appealing to boomers who might be ready use their hard-earned expertise to give back to society."

Specifically, the jobs will be in:

Health care (nursing, home health care, medical assistants).
Education (teachers, teacher assistants and child care workers).
Nonprofits and government (business operations specialists; general and operations managers; receptionists and information clerks).
Social services: (clergy and social and human service assistants).

Of course, this all depends on the economy recovering.

Read Where the Boomers Will Find Jobs to get more details and learn what skills you should be brushing up on.

(Senior sign image by Ethan Prater, CC 3.0)

Sean Silverthorne

Sean Silverthorne is the editor of HBS Working Knowledge, which provides a first look at the research and ideas of Harvard Business School faculty. Working Knowledge, which won a Webby award in 2007, currently records 4 million unique visitors a year. He has been with HBS since 2001.

Silverthorne has 28 years experience in print and online journalism. Before arriving at HBS, he was a senior editor at CNET and executive editor of ZDNET News. While at At Ziff-Davis, Silverthorne also worked on the daily technology TV show The Site, and was a senior editor at PC Week Inside, which chronicled the business of the technology industry. He has held several reporting and editing roles on a variety of newspapers, and was Investor Business Daily's first journalist based in Silicon Valley.

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